Thursday, December 3, 2009

Santa Claus

Christmas is just a few weeks away! But Heidi has been talking about Santa Claus for several weeks.

For the last 5 years, we have gone to the Lockheed Tree Lighting to see Santa. A local elementary school chorus sings holiday songs, they "light" a large Christmas Tree, and Santa Claus shows up on a fire truck! :-) It's a good time!

So we were planning to go this past Tuesday night. Earlier in the day I told Heidi we were going to go hear kids sing, see a big Christmas tree, and she'd get to see Santa! Well, she started whining a bit and said she didn't want to see Santa - that he scared her. I said "OK" and nothing more about the man in the red suit.

About an hour later, she asked if we were going to see the kids sing. I said yes. To which she said, "maybe you can just leave me here." Then she said, "how about we go see the kids sing and the Christmas tree and then you can bring me back here." :-)

No more talking of Santa.

It was a chilly evening, but we all enjoyed the kids singing, the free popcorn, cookies and hot chocolate, and got to see the big Christmas tree.Then they mentioned Santa was coming... PANIC. Heidi started looking for one of us to pick her up and Emma was saying, "Santa's coming! Santa's coming! Woo hoo!!" Yet another way these two are opposites. :-)

Santa arrived on the fire truck and Jason held Heidi a "safe" distance from Santa (determined by her). Whereas Emma was reaching out to touch Santa's hand as he walked by. (Emma is in the pink hat on the right with my mom.)

We waited in line to have a picture taken with Santa. This Santa travels with his wife, Mrs. Claus. So when it was our turn, we put Heidi on Mrs. Claus' knee and Emma was on one of Santa's knees while Rachel was on the other in the middle. Heidi didn't panic, cry or run away - she just sat there.After the pictures, Santa asked Emma if she had been a good girl this year and what she wanted for Christmas. He then turned to Heidi and asked the same question. She didn't say a word - just looked at him. You could maybe say she glared at him. To which he said, "you look terrified." They hopped out of the laps and we got a stocking of goodies they give to all the kids.

After the festivities, we went to dinner. At the restaurant, my mom asked Emma what she told Santa she wanted for Christmas - she said "Treats." Then she turned and asked Heidi what she had told Santa. Heidi said, "I didn't talk to him because I was not happy to see him."

************So that was 2 days ago. Well today we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch after picking her up from preschool. In addition to Santa Claus, Heidi is also scared of the Chick-fil-A cow. As we were getting out of the van, she saw her worst nightmare - a Chick-fil-A cow dressed as Santa Claus! :-) He didn't approach us or even get close to our table - but she was quite bothered by his presence. She did ask if there was a Mrs. Claus Cow - and said she might not be scared of her. :-) We'll have to submit that request/suggestion to Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters.

***********Finally, this afternoon I asked Heidi what she wanted for Christmas. She said "Dogs. Dogs and sheep." OK. Emma said she wanted, "games, toys, and maybe some candy." ;-) But Heidi says she doesn't want Santa to come visit, so he can just leave her dogs and sheep in her stocking.

2 comments:

That is so funny about Heidi and Santa! We had a couple of years where Kathryn would also "glare" at Santa :) One year, she and Matthew were both afraid of Santa, so Marc "sat" on his lap with the two of them so I could get a picture. I got them situated and backed up to snap a picture and before I knew it, the kids had hopped down and run off. I got a great picture of Marc with Santa though :)